Cold Season
To Tangle, a bestbestbest friend. :) Waterpelt Snowflakes tickled my nose, light as feathers. The swirled through the air, forming circle after circle of white patterns. They clung on to the bushes, the trees, the grass. Fresh snow crunched beneath my paws, and I relished the crackle of crisp leaves buried underneath the white mounds. I stopped in front of the training clearing. DarkClan scent still lingered faintly here, adding a black edge to the fresh scents, like a black snowflake mixed in with all the others. I shivered, and fluffed out my pelt. This,' I mewed, gesturing with my tail towards the wall of foliage. 'Is the training hollow. It is where you will go to train with me.' I glanced down at the small golden she cat beside me, to make sure she was still paying attention. Her small tail was quivering with excitement, waving about like a buttercup in the breeze. This cat was Shadowpaw. Her name didn't reflect her nature, or pelt colour at all. Shadowpaw had joined the Clan two sunrises ago. She was a rogue, named Shadow, but Featherstar accepted her as a StormClan cat, so he granted her an apprentice name. I didn't know where she'd come from, but she reminded me of Summerpaw, my dead sister. I felt guilt tug at my mind. Was I betraying my sister? I shook my head, unclogging my thoughts. Shadowpaw was here now, and I was her mentor. I was meant to look after her. 'Will we be doing any training today?' Shadowpaw asked excitedly, cutting through my internal debate. 'Not today,' I shook my head. 'I'm showing you our territory now.' Shadowpaw seemed to lose a little of her excitement, but she soon bounced back. 'Where are we going next?' 'The hill,' I replied. I glanced at the sky A magenta hue was beginning to seep across the horizon. 'After that, we're done, and you can make a nest in the apprentices den with Ashpaw and Sunpaw. Spiderpaw and Icepaw had left the den to become warrriors, Spiderfoot and Icewhisker, so there was room in the den for another apprentice. Cold seemed to wash through me, but it wasn't the snowflakes. It was the thought that Ashpaw was Echo in disguise, and we had no idea what to do next. What was he planning? What had Deathstar asked him to do? Airwhisker had told me, Earthcloud and Firewhisker about her experience once she'd returned, cold, wet and shaken. 'Waterpelt? Waterpelt? Come on, let's move,' 'Sorry?' Shadowpaw gave a little skip of impatience. 'You were staring into space like you'd seen something.' 'Just thinking,' I replied, following my apprentice up the hill. We reached the summit, and by this point, the snow had stopped falling, leaving a cool, crisp air. Shadowpaw was busy inspecting the area, sniffing every bush with interest. 'This is a great place for prey,' I addressed her. 'Voles, mice, birds, you can even fish from the stream.' 'Wow!' Shadowpaw exclaimed, then leant over to gaze at the brook. She dapped her refelction in the water with a paw. 'That's cold!' she squeaked, snatching her paw away like the small river would roar up and eat it. Shadowpaw then regained her confidence, and gazed into the stream again, squeaking as the spray splashed her pelt. 'But be careful,' I warned. 'The bank's quite-' 'Hey, I see a fish!' Shadowpae yowled. She reached out with a paw again, then went toppling into the current. '-Slippy,' I finished, then raced over to hook her out of the water. I could see her golden pelt shining, her paws weren't moving, and her sky blue eyes were wide open and glazed over like ice had covered them. She reminded me so much of another tabby apprentice, one who never saw the sky again... 'Summerpaw..' I croaked. 'I can't let you die.' Without thinking, I plunged m muzzle into the water, found her scruff, and tugged her out. I dumped the scrap of dripping fur on the side, panting after jolding my breath so long. Shadowpaw was breathing, but faintly. Thinking fast, I began rubbing her fur in the wrong direction with my paws, feeling her pelt dry with my movements. Her eyes flicked open. 'Come on,' I grunted. 'Let's get you back to camp.' I hoisted her onto my shoulders and began the long trek back. ---- 'Will she be alright?' I loitered in the entrance to Poolwhisker's den, waiting for the answer. The medicine cat nodded. 'Thanks to you. That pelt rubbing stopped her from getting greencough or something worse.' 'Any cat would have done the same,' I growled a reply, not used to being praised. 'She can train in about five sunrises, when her cold clears up,' Poolwhisker added. 'All she's got is a bit of a bruise on her flank, she must have hit the rocks at the bottom when she fell in.' She dipped her head. 'Thank you for coming.' I took this as my cue to leave, so I shuffled out and then plonked myself down beside Firewhisker, who was noisily chewing a vole. 'Mind if I share?' I asked. 'There's no other prey left on the fresh kill pile.' My ginger friend nodded, and pushed the other half in my direction. 'Thanks,' I mewed, than began to devour my share in fast, messy bites. It was gone within moments. 'So, how's Shadowpaw?' Firewhisker asked once I'd finished. 'Fine,' I mewed. 'She hasn't got anything severe, just a bruise that can be treated easily. I can start training again in a few sunrises. Firewhisker snorted. 'Well, that's alright then,' he replied sarcastically. 'What's wrong?' I mewed, my neck fur rising. 'Isn't it good that my apprentice will be fine?' Shame glinted in Firewhisker's eyes, then he looked away. 'Sorry,' he aplologised. 'But there's something about Shadowpaw...' He broke off. 'Let's just be clear: I don't trust her.' My fur was now fluffed up like a foxes. 'She's loyal,' I hissed. 'And she's pure as the evening air. There's nothing to doubt about her.' Firewhisker looked taken aback by my reaction. 'Calm down,' he assured me. 'It's just...She isn't a replacement for Summerpaw you know. The way you look at her...Waterpelt, she isn't your sister, Summerpaw's gone now. You don't need her to fill in that gap in your heart.' He said it all in a brutally flat and honest tone. My hackles rose. 'So that's it?' I snarled. 'You think I'm replacing Summerpaw? Can't I care for anyone any more?' I whipped round and stalked into the warrior's den, curled up and wrapped my tail round my muzzle. 'Is everything OK, Waterpelt?' Earthcloud asked gently. 'Leave me alone,' I retorted. But as the night fell, I had a niggling feeling that Firewhisker was right. ---- A moon later, I awoke to weak sun filtering through the branches of the den. Sun! It wasn't very warm still, but it made a change from snow. Pushing my way out of the brambles, in the camp I saw that snow was dripping off the bushes and forming icicles on the stones. I let out a throaty purr. It looked so pretty. I padded into the apprentices den to wake up Shadowpaw for her training. She had made a quick recovery and was soon back to her annoying, bouncy self. But when I entered, Shadowpaw was already up. She and Ashpaw-or Echo- had their heads bent close together, and they both jumped a tail length into the air when they spotted me. They both had extremely guilty looks on their faces, and Echo's, as usual, was tinged with meanness. However, when I turned to Shadowpaw, I saw the same nasty look in her eyes. I blinked, shocked, but when I looked at my apprentice again, the cold expression was gone. You're seeing things, I told myself.'' Shadowpaw is loyal....Or is she? I found myself thinking back to what Firewhisker had said. ''I don't trust her. '' Growling softly, I licked a paw and drew it over one ear to block out his voice. 'Waterpelt!' Shadowpaw moaned. 'You're doing it again, the staring into nothing face. Let's go hunting' 'Alright,' I managed to reply, my friend's words still echoing in my ears. 'Your challenge is to catch an even bigger sparrow today.' 'I will!' Shadowpaw mewed deterimindly. 'I;m the best hunter in the forest ' Blinking again, I followed her golden tail out of camp. ---- It was now sunhigh, and Shadowpaw had kept to her word: a huge sparrow was hanging from her jaws. Pround shone in her gaze, but then it faded. 'Ashpaw caught a much bigger one that this,' she sighed forlornly. 'You're just as good as Ashpaw,' I replied shortly. I was worried about how close she and Echo were. I had seen them talking before this morning's events, and I didn't want her becoming friends with this bad cat. I decided to come clean with Shadowpaw. 'Look...' I began, wishing the words would just speak for themselves. 'I don't...I don't want you to get too close to Ashpaw.' Shadowpaw's eyes immediately flashed with anger. 'Why not? He's a great cat, greater than you were as an apprentice.' I wanted to tell her, angrily, how me and my friends defeated DarkClan as apprentices but I bit bac the stinging retort and answered instead, 'I can't say why, but he's dangerous. He's not good...He's dark.' Shadowpaw's eyes weren't fun anymore, they were dark and angry. I hardly recognised her. 'Ashpaw has plans for StormClan....Or should I say ''Echo ''has plans.' I flinched, and my apprentice noticed my reaction. 'Scared of him?' she taunted. 'Scared of an apprentice?' Her tone was scathing, leaving verbal scars on my body. I was too shocked to replt. 'How do you know this?' I choked out. 'What are his plans?' 'He promised Deathstar,' Shadowpaw mewed. 'Yes, Echo told me about him too. And I'm going to join him.' 'Join him in what?' I shot back. 'I'm going to join him,' Shadowpaw repeated. 'I'm going to help him gather up rogues from all round the territory to defeat you mouse brained StormClanners. It was Echo who encouraged me to join the Clan. StormClan will fall, Waterpelt, I promise you.' I bristled. 'Don't you know promises are meant to be broken?' I glared at her. She glared back. 'Not this vow,' she snarled smugly. 'The end has begun Waterpelt. nd you can't stop it.' '''TO BE CONTINED IN EPISODE THREE....'